The Department of Defense has created a new weapon that is so fast it could travel once around the Earth in just 5 hours, and that’s a low estimate. It is called the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW), and has just completed its first successful test flight.

The AHW can reach speeds in excess of Mach 5 within Earth’s atmosphere using new hypersonic boost-glide technology utilizing a 3-stage boost system. As an example of just how fast the AHW is, the test flight saw it launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii, and reach the Reagan Test Site at Kwajelein, Atoll in less than 30 minutes. That’s a 2,500 mile journey as the crow flies.

The test flight was just to assess how well the glide-boost system worked alongside seeing how well the weapon held up in terms of temperatures, navigation, and maintaining control. The end result of these tests is going to be a weapon that can reach even the most distant targets in less than a couple of hours. It will form part of the U.S. Government’s Conventional Prompt Global Strike effort.

If hypersonic flight sounds familiar, it’s probably because DARPA recently tested the Falcon HTV-2 plane that could eventually reach Mach 20 due to its use. How similar the Falcon and AHW are we don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find some shared tech between the two. That would also mean 30 minutes to travel 2,500 miles could just be a starting point with the AHW only getting faster with more development time.